This prospect 'kind of stole the show' in Mariners' spring opener

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Michael Arroyo couldn’t wait to return to his hotel on Friday night, where his older brother, Carlos, would be eagerly awaiting to talk about his big day.

Arroyo, the Mariners’ No. 5 prospect and MLB Pipeline’s No. 67 overall, crushed Seattle’s first homer of Cactus League play in a 7-4 win over the Padres at Peoria Stadium. Then he came back for a curtain call when punching a double that one-hopped the right-center wall in nearly the exact location.

In a lineup with the likes of Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez, the 21-year-old infielder was the day’s standout.

“Arroyo kind of stole the show,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.

More telling than Friday’s results was the approach that led to them.

The homer left his bat at 102.4 mph, traveled a Statcast-projected 406 feet, connected against a changeup and in an 0-2 count. The double had a 103.3 mph exit velocity, went 393 feet and was against a first-pitch slider.

“My game is to just let the ball come to me,” Arroyo said through an interpreter, “and just trying to make contact where I think it’s best at. I just try to hit the ball as best as I can in whatever direction it goes.”

At 5-foot-10, 160 pounds and built like a running back, Arroyo packs more punch than his compact frame would suggest, with a combined 40 homers and a .473 slugging percentage over his past two seasons. But scouts have also questioned whether he too often sells out for pull-side power.

Yet over his past three seasons, he’s been far more middle-of-the-field, dropping his pull rate from 52.7% to 45.8% to 42.7%. And it’s correlated to less swing-and-miss, with a palatable 18.7% K rate last season, between High-A Everett and Double-A Arkansas, where he finished the season over 56 games.

“My mentality has always been to look for the fastball, or every pitch is a fastball,” Arroyo said, “and just try to hit it where I can with my point of contact. So if I see it’s a breaking ball, just quickly make that adjustment.”

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He might not have arrived with the same buzz as some of the headline signings out of the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, but Arroyo has been widely touted as the best right-handed contact hitter in Seattle’s No. 3-ranked farm system. And he continues to climb since netting a $1.375 million bonus during the 2022 international signing period.

“I’ve never really thought of it that way,” Arroyo said. “If I start thinking of myself as an advanced batter, I think my body would start to relax and that could go bad. I’ve just always had the mentality of trying to get better.”

He’ll see more extended reps than usual for a player that won’t make the Opening Day roster, as an effort to allocate him more at-bats before he departs for the World Baseball Classic, where he’ll play for Team Colombia.

Carlos, who spent time in the Pirates, Marlins and Braves organizations -- and whom Arroyo credits for much of his baseball upbringing -- will be his teammate in the Classic.

“As we came up, I looked at him as an idol,” Arroyo said.

Arroyo’s foundation is his offensive polish. He shows mature pitch recognition, disciplined swing decisions and a knack for finding the barrel. It’s a line-drive oriented profile with consistent hard contact, and while the raw power may project more average-to-plus than true plus-plus, there’s enough thump for it to play because of how often he squares the ball up.

Defensively, Arroyo is still searching for a more solidified home. His glove has been the one question mark, as he grew up as a third baseman before transitioning more full-time to second base as a pro. This spring, he’ll play at both positions and could potentially dabble in the outfield.

“Versatility is big for us,” Wilson said. “And we have several guys that we'd like to see be able to expand their horizons in that way and play different spots.”